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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26814745">research and ribcages</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/boom_goes_the_canon/pseuds/boom_goes_the_canon'>boom_goes_the_canon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>escapades of a young medical student [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>19th Century Medicine, Canon Era, Disguise, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Hijinks &amp; Shenanigans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:27:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,002</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26814745</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/boom_goes_the_canon/pseuds/boom_goes_the_canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Joly first bumps into her on his way to a lecture. She’s dressed well, a little on the eccentric side, and Joly’s heart skips a beat when she helps him up. She wears a roguish smirk to go with the pencil stuck jauntily in her curls, and stares boldly at him as he goggles at her.</p><p>“I want to sneak into the medical school,” she says, brushing the dust off her dress. “Would you help me, please?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Joly/Musichetta</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>escapades of a young medical student [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1963519</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>research and ribcages</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Joly first bumps into her on his way to a lecture. She’s dressed well, a little on the eccentric side, and Joly’s heart skips a beat when she helps him up. She wears a roguish smirk to go with the pencil stuck jauntily in her curls, and stares boldly at him as he goggles at her.</p><p>“I want to sneak into the medical school,” she says, brushing the dust off her dress. “Would you help me, please?”</p><p>“Um—”</p><p>“—Not for any nefarious reasons, of course. It’s only I’m writing a novel about a doctor and I need material, or else my editor will rail at me and say he’s entirely too cheery for a doctor.” She makes a little face. “You <em>are</em> a medical student, right?”</p><p>Joly laughs nervously, drumming his fingers on his cane. “How did you know?”</p><p>“You keep checking your pulse, and you have that anxious look about you,” she says. “I find it sets in at the six-month mark. Oh, and I once saw you carrying a severed hand.”</p><p>“That’s very impressive, er, Mademoiselle—?”</p><p>“—Musichetta,” she says. She curtsies, and Joly finds himself smiling far too foolishly.</p><p>“I’m Joly. And er, I can help you sneak in?”</p><p>She takes his arm, loops hers through it like it’s the most natural thing in the world. “Excellent. Just what I wanted to hear. Let me change into my things.”</p><p>“Ah…” Joly says. He hasn’t felt so out of his depth in years. “I will wait here for you.”</p><p>Musichetta winks at him and disappears into the nearest building, and Joly starts thinking up cover stories. He’s never been good at lying when faced with a direct question, and Musichetta is the sort of person who attracts direct questions, questions like “who are you?” and “what are you doing here?” and “will you please be with me?”</p><p>He could introduce her as a relative perhaps, a prying sister or cousin who wished to visit Paris. Perhaps he could attract attention himself, and thus draw it away from her. Maybe he could pretend to have an attack of apoplexy or slice himself accidentally with a scalpel. He has one in his satchel, barely used since Combeferre borrowed it for a dissection. That might do.</p><p>“Shall we go on, monsieur Joly?”</p><p>A transformed Musichetta steps out the door, dressed in a well-tailored coat and a neatly patched pair of trousers. Her hair is carefully arranged underneath a top hat, the lines of her face concealed by a stiff collar.</p><p>“Why, you are quite handsome,” Joly blurts, and immediately slaps a hand across his mouth.</p><p>Musichetta just grins. “I am glad you think so,” she says, and her voice is pitched low. “Shall we go?”</p><p>-</p><p>Musichetta easily blends into the others when they arrive, and she has a gift for plunging into conversations. Joly quickly gets separated from her in the mad rush.</p><p>They’re doing dissections today, and Musichetta shoots him <em>such</em> a look when the corpses get distributed that Joly quails in his boots and drops his scalpel into the gaping ribcage of a man. He gets it out, but not without getting his sleeves all stained and his glasses smudged.</p><p>“Joly, what’s wrong with you?” hisses the man beside him, and Joly ignores him in favor of switching places with Musichetta’s partner as he attempts to dislocate a corpse’s already dislocated shoulder.</p><p>“Can I help?” Joly says, because Musichetta is wielding a scalpel like a meat cleaver and already there’s chunks of corpse on the floor.</p><p>“Of course you can, but you shan’t,” she says. “How do you get anywhere with these tiny little blades, anyway?”</p><p>“You usually just cut a flap.”</p><p>“Medical students,” Musichetta mutters, waving him off with a scalpel, so Joly leaves her to it.</p><p>-</p><p>Next after the dissections are the rounds, and Joly cashes in on several favors in order to get Musichetta and him at the front. He can already hear his classmates making insinuations and winking, and he studiously turns his collar up high to hide his red cheeks.</p><p>“I didn’t know you lot were just as bad as the law students,” Musichetta whispers.</p><p>“We skip class less,” Joly says defensively, prompting a laugh.</p><p>The surgeon on-duty exhibits a callous disregard for how the operations go, and soon, the screams of patients fill the ward. Musichetta takes copious notes, and just for fun it seemed, she affects a squinty-eyed, squirrely manner.</p><p>“I didn’t know people had quite so much blood in them,” she mutters, when Joly inquires after her well-being. “And you don’t need to worry about me. I’m sure the patients deserve much more of your attention.”</p><p>“You deserve a lot of my attention,” Joly says, and Musichetta looks supremely pleased with herself.</p><p>“Quiet, you,” she says, nudging him with her elbow, and Joly stays quiet for the entire lesson.</p><p>-</p><p>“I hope you found what you were looking for,” Joly says pleasantly, as Musichetta emerges from the dressing room, folding the coat and trousers as she does. His other acquaintances left him alone as soon as the lessons were over, winking and laughing over his obvious “case of lovesickness.”</p><p>They were never any good at puns.</p><p>“Certainly,” Musichetta says, looking him up and down. “I just need to know a few more little details.” She steps closer to him, her small foot showing from underneath her skirts. “Personal ones.”</p><p>Joly swallows. “I am at your service.”</p><p>“I would like to interview you.” She pauses. “Privately if possible. Can’t have anyone stealing my ideas, don’t you know?”</p><p>“That would be horrible of them.”</p><p>“Exactly.” She steps even closer, her eyes fixed on his face. “I think I can make some time for your interview next week. My rooms on Sunday?” She twirls a card out of her pocket and presents it to him. “I’ll make it worth your while.”</p><p>“I’ll be there,” Joly says fervently. “If you’re free afterwards—”</p><p>“—I would love to go to dinner with you,” she finishes, and kisses him on the cheek.</p>
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